Yankees top Jays to clinch berth

TORONTO — One year into a rebuild, the New York Yankees are back in the playoffs.

Greg Bird, among the new generation of Baby Bombers, hit a three-run homer that led New York over the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 on Saturday to clinch no worse than a wild card.

“I feel like our motto in the offseason was: ‘We’re going to surprise people,’ ” Bird said. “Obviously, we had a good spring, but we knew that wasn’t the real deal. We came out and played our game the whole year, and I feel like we showed people.”

Sonny Gray (10-11), among New York’s midseason reinforcements, allowed one run and four hits in six innings as the Yankees won for the 11th time in 14 games and at 8668 matched their season high of 18 games over .500.

“I didn’t know exactly what we were going to be this year, but when I saw the way these kids were playing in spring training and the depth of our talent, it got me really excited and I thought it was possible,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

Chase Headley reached base three times to help the Yankees reach the postseason for the 53rd time in franchise history. The Los Angeles Dodgers are second with 31.

Unless New York overcomes Boston’s four-game lead the AL East, the Yankees would play in the AL wild card game on Oct. 3, most likely at home against Minnesota. New York lost the wild card matchup to Houston 3-0 at home two years ago and has not won a postseason game since Derek Jeter broke an ankle in the 2012 AL Championship Series opener against Detroit.

Led by Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, New York celebrated in a low-key manner on the field after former-Yankee Rob Refsnyder hit a game-ending groundout off Aroldis Chapman, then sprayed bubbly in the visitors’ clubhouse.